A friend of a friend was shopping in a
popular grocery store, and in front of him/
her was a Middle-Eastern—possibly Iraqi—
man who did not have enough money to pay
for his groceries. He refused to replace any of
his groceries and was holding up the line. The
friend offered a few extra dollars for his order
to the stranger, who then left the store with his
groceries. When the friend left the store, he/she
found that the Middle-Eastern stranger was
waiting outside. The man thanked the friend
for the money and warned him/her not to
drink Coca-Cola products after a specific date.

—Legend of the Grateful Terrorist
(2005)

The folktale of the grateful dead was
once widely known and passed on through
both religious and secular traditions. Today
most people would conjure an image of
the popular rock band, which is said to
have found its name from this story, as
well (Cohen 2000). The story has evolved
throughout history in response to society’s
psychological coping needs during times
of crisis. This mythic theme has resurfaced
from the earliest Judaic scriptures to
contemporary urban legends.

According to Linda Dégh, “Brief and
‘factual’ statements about horrible criminal
acts, devastating natural catastrophes, alien
invasions, life-threatening conspiracies
against common people by powerful interest
groups or governments . . . have spread
like wildfire because they mesh perfectly
with the anxieties of ordinary people, who
are alienated by the sober and banal reality
of everyday existence in a technological
age” (2001, 126). Such anxieties of daily
living call out for comforting. Those who
lived through the angst of monumental
events such as Pearl Harbor, the Kennedy
assassinations, and September 11, 2001,
carry with them an indelible imprint of
the events. The “I remember where I was
when” statements that arise when individual
survivors congregate point to the longlasting
significance of the event and the
“flash-bulb memory” effect. Storytelling
and sharing of legends by and about those
who lived through such events through
luck, serendipity, or the kindness of others
provide a context in which others who pass
on the legends come to grips with the shared
trauma that has befallen them. The process
can be a positive cathartic event and instill
a sense of gratitude that those who tell the
tale—like those the legend describes—are
also survivors (Dégh 2001).

It was difficult for individuals experiencing
symptoms of post-traumatic stress to
escape constant reminders of September
11, 2001. Every television station aired
coverage of the attack. Rumors began to
surface, spreading through e-mail, web
sites, the media, and word of mouth. These
urban legends included an unburned Bible
found in the wreckage, taxis avoiding the World Trade Center on the morning of
9/11, terrorists planning to poison candy
and attack malls on Halloween, Ryder and
U-Haul trucks stolen by terrorists, a picture
of a tourist on the roof of the tower with a
plane in the background, and demonic faces
seen in the smoke from the Twin Towers
(Heimbaugh 2001). Perhaps one of the
most popular stories was the legend of the
grateful terrorist, quoted at the beginning
of this article.

The grateful terrorist rumor became so
prevalent following 9/11 that Coca-Cola
posted a response on the company’s web
site in 2002:

These rumors are absolutely false and
are causing needless worry. The Coca-
Cola Company has an uncompromising
commitment to product safety, and our
products are produced and distributed
through secure facilities. We use a
number of processes to assure the
safety and quality of the water and
ingredients used to make products of
the Coca-Cola Company. To ensure
the effectiveness of our safeguards,
we do not discuss the details of these
processes.

The product changes and can include
any popular soft drink. The location of the
incident changes as well: a grocery store, a
gas station, or a restaurant. A date is always
set, such as July 4. After the date passes,
a new date emerges to keep the rumor current. Sometimes the friend is a man,
other times a woman—but the friend is
never available to be questioned about the
event. This article will explore this narrative’s
thematic attributes, the psychological coping
mechanism that perpetuates the tale, and the
legend’s historical evolution.

Thematic Attributes of
the Narrative

The unique aspect of this urban legend
and its historical predecessors is that specific
themes arise through the narrative. Differing
from other urban legends, they provide a
positive outcome for the primary characters
and participants:
1. A stranger is in a state of need or
helplessness.
2. A favor is provided by a friend of a
friend, a Good Samaritan.
3. The stranger unexpectedly repays the
Good Samaritan by providing information,
warnings, prophetic predictions, or wisdom.

The most prominent theme seen in this
urban legend is that acts of kindness and
good deeds are rewarded in unexpected
ways. Even though there is a hint of threat
in the warning itself, this is one of few
urban legends that provides a positive
outcome regarding the good deed and the
advice. Other legends tend to create anxiety
through fearful scenarios where someone is
often injured or escapes from harm in the
nick of time.

The positive outcome also offers a moral
for the narrative: “Do unto others as you
would have others do unto you.” As a result,
the story models altruistic behavior for
those who hear it, while providing a coping
mechanism for those who want to believe.

Psychological Coping
Mechanisms

When the narrative is viewed as a coping
mechanism, people react and participate in
the story to different degrees. Taking part
in the psycho-narrative through belief and
sharing of the story with others can result
in comfort, hope, or a lowering of the
individual’s death anxiety. Participation in
the narrative experience provides a sense
of ownership for the individual, without
actually experiencing the event. One person
might believe that the scenario actually
occurred, passing the story on to others
wholeheartedly. Another may see the legend
as mere entertainment. Others may simply pass on the legend without any investment in the story, emotional or otherwise (Dégh
2001).

Responses can be seen as healthy or
unhealthy. The coping mechanism becomes
positive when an individual’s anxiety is
lowered. It may be unhealthy, however,
for someone to place too much faith in a
narrative that is untrue. Identifying with the
greater moral theme of doing good for others
may increase positive interaction with others.
Unfortunately, the favorable theme may be
ignored, and listeners may focus only on the
negative warning, “Do not drink Coca-Cola
after . . . .” This may raise their anxiety and
refocus attention on the troubling social
context and personal concerns.

Belief in a Just World

According to Jean Piaget (1932), the developing
child goes through a stage of moral
autonomy characterized by a strong belief
in “immanent justice.” In this stage, the
world is perceived as a place where “good”
is rewarded and “bad” is punished. Perhaps
in a roundabout and mysterious way, this
urban legend reflects immanent justice at
work. There is experimental evidence that
most people maintain a degree of belief in
a just universe. The belief in a just world
allows us to self-servingly interpret negative
events (Lerner 1980). If bad things happen
to people, in short, it’s because they deserve
it. The protective role of the belief in a just
world is clear: “Since I am a good person, I
am not in danger.” Tragedies like somebody’s
arbitrary death in an accident or an act of
terrorism may have particularly negative
effects on a person who is a strong believer
in a just world.

Chasteen and Madey (2003) found that
participants with a high belief in a just world
viewed arbitrary death of victims as more
tragic and unjust than those with a low belief.
Events with the magnitude of the September
11 attack can have a devastating effect on the
belief in a just world. Individuals may think,
“People were killed for no reason. It could
have been me, and may happen to me in the
future.” Normally, individuals are protected
by their self-esteem against awareness of
their mortality (Greenberg et al. 1992). Self-esteem
is obtained via identification with
one’s cultural values and the performance of
good deeds. Doing good is rewarded by the
cultural system. For this buffer mechanism
to work, basic beliefs—such as the belief in
a just world—are necessary.

Terror Management Theory

The urban legends originating from the
September 11 attack can be understood through the psychological context of terror management theory. This theory originated
from studies of emotional responses when
people are faced with the knowledge that
they will die. The awareness of one’s own
mortality causes psychological terror, leading
the individual to participate in “terror
management” behaviors. These behaviors
act as a buffer to this existential angst. In
an attempt to protect the self, individuals
construct belief in a cultural system and
worldview. They then measure their sense of
worth by how well they are living up to the
expectations of their cultural beliefs. People
with higher self-esteem have lower death
anxiety, according to this theory.

The 9/11 stories convey a need for an
explanation, express emotions about perpetrators
or victims, and offer information
about future events. As an attempt at terror
management, these mythic tales try to
reestablish a sense of control and restore
belief in an immanent, universal justice. The
legend of the grateful terrorist describes
a future terrorist event, manifesting and
expressing fear. Rumors circulated regarding
an impending attack planned to occur
near Halloween (Pyszczynski, Solomon,
and Greenberg 2003), expressing the same
fear and anxiety as the grateful terrorist
legend. Such stories also provide information
that transmutes free-floating anxiety
about potential terrible events into a fear of
a concrete event over which one has some
control. The informative and emotional
function are complementary, acting together
to restore a sense of control (Heath, Bell,
and Sternberg 2001). It is significant that
the Good Samaritan’s act of kindness is
rewarded with information. It symbolizes
a victory of good over evil, thus restoring
belief in the cultural system and protecting
against fear and anxiety.

Rumors and urban legends are sometimes
produced to enhance negative stereotypes.
Allport (1954) emphasized the role of rumor
in enhancing prejudice and hostility, resulting
in the triggering of violence. Negative
reactions toward “out-group members” constitute
one of the basic predictions of terror
management theory (Greenberg et al. 1990;
Nelson et al. 1997). In the grateful terrorist
urban legend, a person of Middle-Eastern
descent is planning, or at least knows about,
the Coca-Cola poisoning. The terrorist in the
story is not depicted as completely evil, nor
is he impervious to acts of kindness. The
urban legend not only evokes fear or panic
(Pyszczynski, Solomon, and Greenberg
2003, 136), but also restores basic hope
that the principles of good and immanent
justice are at work. The altruistic gesture of
the person who offers the stranger money
demonstrates the tendency of helping behaviors
to increase after catastrophes such
as September 11. Altruistic action increases
self-worth and acts in the service of terror
management, reducing death anxiety.

Narratives and Constructive
Meaning

Facing the fear, anxiety, and chaos that
profound loss or trauma brings, an individual
creates a personal narrative. This replaces a
state of shock and meaninglessness. Niemeyer
stated that a person must move from
the absence of meaning to the meaning of
absence, acknowledging the loss and assigning
to the loss a meaning that they can
incorporate into their lives. When confronting
difficult events, people attempt to weave
an account of the events in order to make
sense of them.

Following the California wildfires of
October 2007, Mark Lepore was a member
of a mental health team in the Los Angeles
County area that accompanied residents
back to the neighborhoods affected by the
fires. Many of the residents had begun assigning
meaning to the loss of their homes
and possessions. One victim stated that he
had lost much of his antique business that
he had worked at since he was sixteen years
old. He explained that this must have happened
for a reason. For the past ten years,
he had vowed to scale down his work but
did not. Now he would have time to spend
with his children and grandchildren. Another
person was spared, but his friends’ and family’s
homes on the block were destroyed. He
owned a construction business and planned
to work to repay them for their years of support.
He looked at this event as an opportunity
to help others. People who had
previously experienced significant loss knew
that their reaction to the event was pivotal,
now and in the future. Only in hindsight, as
the effects of the event are processed, will
the trauma carry meaning. The life narrative,
the self, and the world then become
comprehensible again.

Stories constructed by survivors as
coping mechanisms vary. The actual event
and observable behaviors that follow
are less important than the underlying
psychological dimensions. Creating stories
or narratives is a method people use to
express the psychological processing of an
overwhelming event. Heroic appraisals of
events act as a protective factor to some
individuals, providing a sense of purpose
and a symbolic way to transcend the horrific
experience. Such is the case with survivors
of September 11. In some cases, individuals
create healthy narratives based in reality;
in other cases, people incorporate urban
legend and folklore in creation in their
reconstructed narratives.

The unique themes of the grateful terrorist
narrative can be traced historically across
two thousand years. Gordon Gerould and
Norm Cohen (1908/2000) have provided
extensive research on this topic. The themes
remain consistent, but the names, context,
and storyline have evolved. During times of
stress and anxiety, the rumors and themes
resurface.

The Vanishing Hitchhiker

The tale of the vanishing hitchhiker is
one of the best known urban legends. The
time is always evening. A driver sees a man
or woman standing on the side of the road.
The driver stops and invites the hitchhiker
into the car. The passenger always sits in the
back and gives the driver a strange message.
When the driver turns around to ask the
passenger about the statement, the person
has vanished from the back seat. Sometimes
the hitchhiker has left a sweater behind, or
the seatbelt is still fastened where the person
had been sitting (Jacobson 1948; Brunvand
1981 and 2001).

The legend has many different variations,
yet all share common characteristics. After
the attack on Pearl Harbor and throughout
World War II, this urban legend began to
flourish. Tales spread of people picking up
hitchhikers who gave prophetic warnings
about how long the war would last, and
then vanished. Sometimes the passenger
was a nun; other times it was an elderly man
with no money. In each case, the stranger
thanked the driver for the ride and offered
information as repayment. Jacobson (1948)
noted that this theme “had appeared in
every military conflict since the Napoleonic
Wars,” and variations may stem back to the
Middle Ages.

In other versions, the hitchhiker is performing
an act of kindness by saving a
person’s life or leading a doctor to a sick
relative. One common theme is that the
audience never fully discovers who—or
what—the hitchhiker was. It is implied
that the figure was a ghost of someone
deceased or an angel that returned to do
an act of kindness. This is revealed by the
recognition of the figure through photographs;
later the driver stumbles upon the
stranger’s headstone in a cemetery or is told
that the person passed away on that same
date many years ago. The anniversary date
plays an important role. The figure usually
died one year ago on that date, or it was his
or her birthday. Each detail adds depth and
drama to the story, holding the audiences’
attention and assuring it will be believed and
passed on again (Jacobson 1948; Brunvand
1981 and 2001).

The Story of Tobit

The story of Tobit is part of Hebrew apocryphal
literature written between 200 and 100
B.C.E. Gordon Gerould (1908/2000) noted
that this story combines two separate folklores:
the tale of the poison maiden and the
tale of the grateful dead.

When the Jewish people were persecuted
in Nineveh, a righteous man named Tobit
buried the bodies of the executed. Despite
his good deed, Tobit was arrested, later
becoming blind and losing his wealth. He
sent his son, Tobias, to collect an unpaid
debt from his relative Gabael. On the way,
Tobias was joined by a stranger (disguised
as Azarias, another of Tobit’s relatives),
who later reveals himself to be the angel
Raphael. The angel encouraged him to
do two things. First, Tobias caught a fish,
preserving its heart, liver, and gall. Second,
he asked for the hand of Gabael’s daughter,
Sara, in wedlock. Seven previous suitors
had been killed attempting to consummate
their marriages with Sara. Using the heart
and liver of the fish, Tobias exorcized a
demon, Asmodeus, which had possessed
Sara. He then used the gall of the fish
to cure his father’s blindness (Gerould
1908/2000).

The Story of the Grateful
Dead

Gerould was one of the first scholars to
identify the theme of the grateful dead in
early literature and folktales. The first of
two primary characters is usually a destitute
person who has died without any personal
resources or one who has committed a
sin and was condemned by contemporary
society. For these reasons, the person was
left unburied. The second character is a
kind and altruistic person who donates his
last bit of money so that the body can be
buried. As the charitable person continues
on his journey, he meets a stranger who
offers to help in any way he can. Later, it is
discovered that the stranger is actually the
ghost of the deceased person he had helped
to bury—hence the title of the “grateful
dead” (Gerould 1908/2000).

This story evolved across history,
incorporating new cultural motifs while
maintaining the core theme of a kind act
to a stranger and repayment for the good
deed in an unexpected way. The grateful
dead theme also incorporates tales of
a grateful stranger, as Gerould noted.
Another early depiction of this theme is the
tale of Simonides in Cicero’s De Divinatione.
Simonides buried an exposed corpse and
was warned by the deceased in a dream not
to board a specific ship for his own safety.
All who sailed on the ship were lost in a
shipwreck (Gerould 1908/2000).

Gerould also noted three additional early
variations on the theme: Jewish, Annamite,
and Survian VI. The Jewish theme is quite
similar to the story of Simonides. After
his father’s death, a young man from
Jerusalem was traveling and found a Jewish
corpse hanging in chains. The man had
been suspected of stealing money, and his
body would not be buried until his debt
was repaid. The young man paid the debt
and buried the body. He was later saved
during a storm at sea by a magical rock that
carried him back to land, and then carried
by an eagle back to Jerusalem. The ghost
of the deceased man appeared to him and
explained that it was he who was both the
rock and eagle and that he would continue
to reward the young man in the future for
his kindness. The other variants follow the
theme more loosely. Each tale incorporates
the burial of a corpse by an individual
who is a faithful friend or a compassionate
stranger. Ultimately, the primary character is
rewarded for his altruistic actions (Gerould
1908/2000).

Similarities among
Narratives and Psychological
Implications

Some may argue that this common
theme occurs in every culture as a result of
the human condition and societal milieu.
A Jungian psychological view attributes
recurring themes to humanity’s collective
unconscious, in an archetypal sense, or
to the common human experience. An
archetype is a primordial image or form
of universal thought that responds to the
world. According to Jung, “The archetype is
a kind of readiness to produce over and over
again the same or similar mythical ideas.
Hence it seems as though what is impressed
upon the unconscious were exclusively
the subjective fantasy—ideas aroused by
the physical process. We may therefore
assume that the archetypes are recurrent
impressions made by subjective reasons”
(Jung 1953, 87). A recurring archetype may
appear in dreams, myths, ritual, or art and
be projected into cultural folklore. Whether
the tale is passed from one culture to another, evolving over time, or is a recurring archetype originating from societal contexts
or the collective unconscious, the universal
theme remains fascinating.

There are some obvious differences
among the grateful terrorist story, the
vanishing hitchhiker, and the older stories
of the grateful dead. In all of the stories,
however, gratitude is expressed in a life-and-
death context during a period of
social anxiety. This context constitutes the
general backdrop for the story: September
11, the Pearl Harbor attack, or the death
of an individual who is eventually buried.
The symbolic nature of the burial, as an act
that restores dignity and perhaps prevents
a state of no repose for the dead (Gerould
1908/2000), parallels the altruistic kindness
to the Middle-Eastern man in the modern
urban legend of the grateful terrorist. In
both cases, symbolic or purely altruistic acts
have the psychological effect of restoring
a sense of justice, fulfilling a protective
function, or acting as a coping mechanism
against death anxiety.

Folklore has acted as a means to ease
this anxiety for as long as humans have
existed. Belief in an urban legend can be a
healthy—or unhealthy—way for people to
participate in terror management. Mortality
assures that we will continue to experience
disruptions to our belief in immanent
justice, guaranteeing that the legend of the
grateful dead will continue to evolve. What
form will it take next?

Trisha L. Smith holds a master’s degree
from the Department of Counseling
Psychology at Chatham University in
Pittsburgh. She currently works as a
family therapist and is researching the
relationship between psychology and
folklore.

Grafton Eliason is an associate professor
in the School of Education’s
Department of Counseling at California
University of Pennsylvania in California,
Pennsylvania. He is a Licensed Professional
Counselor (LPC) and an ordained
Presbyterian minister.

Jeff L. Samide is associate professor
of counselor education at California
University of Pennsylvania, where he
teaches school and community counseling.
He is a LPC with a private practice
in Indiana, Pennsylvania.

Adrian Tomer teaches in the Department
of Psychology at Shippensburg
University in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.
He has conducted research and
published on topics related to death
anxiety.

Mark Lepore, LPC, holds a clinical social
work license and serves as director of
counseling services at Clarion University
of Pennsylvania. A supervisor for
American Red Cross national disaster
response, he volunteered for assignment
after the terrorist attacks of September
11.

The authors would like to thank Amanda
Cisler, a graduate of California University
of Pennsylvania and currently a
school counselor, for her help in editing
this article.

Even though there is a hint of threat in the warning itself, this is one of few urban legends
that provides a positive outcome....The story
models altruistic behavior for those who hear
it, while providing a coping mechanism for
those who want to believe.

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